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"Life is only what you make of it."
~ Gabrielle, Is There A Doctor In the House
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panda2oo5 |
Was Xena insane? |
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Well, was she? I mean, she murdered thousands of people, and sometimes showed signs of multiple personality disorder. What do you guys think? For example, was
she crazy as "evil Xena" and then miraculously cured?
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munnag |
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LOL.. she wasn't Insane.. She just wasn't sue what she use to do...!!
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Meg the Tramp |
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I don't think she was insane, but more suffering from Post-traumatic syndrome. To the max.
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munnag |
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yeah..ture@Meg
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TANSTAAFL |
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She did go around the bend a bit after her first encounter with Caesar. Hard to say what her mental state was after that, but it clearly wasn't good.
However, she was lucid enough to be functional, so I think she was more angry and reckless than outright crazy.
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argosaddle.talkingxena |
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Angry yes,crazy no
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AikoujOi |
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Xena was angry, Callisto and Najara were the crazy ones.
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dahllaz |
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Insane used in the conventional sense, meaning crazy/loony, delusional and unaware of right or wrong and therefore not responsible for her actions. No.
Insane just meaning some sort of mental disorder, but still knows right from wrong and knowingly chooses what path to take? Yeah, I'd say there's a good chance for that. Even if it's just Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I don't think she suffered from full blown psychopathy, as she did feel regret, guilt and compassion for others. Eventually anyway. heh However, I'm not sure Xena wasn't borderline or something, for the degree and length of time she spent hurting others. And relishing it, wallowing in it. Just not sure PTSD alone can explain the joy she found in tormenting others. Callisto is a whole lot closer to the normal use of insane, but then again...she was aware that her actions were wrong. She just didn't care and even felt she was entitled to do whatever she wanted in her quest for vengeance. |
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justschtupp |
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Hmm...good question. I agree with Meg though. She'd seen a lot of death in her life, and at a young age to boot.
"At the opera to-night!"
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Elfrieda |
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Multiple personality disorder? Explain, please
No, I don't think she was insane by the usual definition of the word. There's a difference between evil and crazy. She was reckless, maybe even suicidal at times, and of course homicidal, but she knew what she was doing. To me her turning good loses a lot of interest points if she was just cured of insanity. |
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TheJollyApe |
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dahllaz wrote:Oh, I've never consider that before, but she does appear to have an almost borderline type of personality. Snagged the following definition of the "symptoms" from Wiki and I say that's more or less Xena defined. The disorder typically involves unusual levels of instability in mood; "black and white" thinking, or "splitting"; chaotic and unstable interpersonal relationships, self-image, identity, and behavior; as well as a disturbance in the individual's sense of self. In extreme cases, this disturbance in the sense of self can lead to periods of dissociation.
"Love is the big booming beat which covers up the noise of hate."
The Oddballs // The Chronicles of Ape Subtle.Subtle.Subtle // The Great Re-Watch |
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Xenasgrrl |
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No. The truly insane never have remorse.
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dark hunter silver |
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I agree with Dahllaz she was suffering from a Post traumatic stress disorder which caused her extremely violent behaviour during her warlord days. It might
explain a lot in her behaviour even after a warlord days and some of the really bad things she did like the gabdrag and trying to kill infant Hope while
Gabrielle was sleeping.
Last Edited By: dark hunter silver
04/09/09 3:27 AM.
Edited 3 times.
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Xenasgrrl |
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I really don't think PTSD caused Xena to try to kill baby Hope.
She was very deliberate, calm and clear and methodical about that, it wasn't a knee jerk reaction.
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munnag |
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I agree with xenasgrll
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Meg the Tramp |
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Hey! PTSD was my idear! Lol, but yeah, I have to go with Dahlazz too, as she made a better poinst with it. She probably started suffering from it after she
watched her brother get killed in battle, because she blames herself for his death (as well as her mother). That's a bunch to carry on your shoulders,
considering what age she had to be at that time (probably around 15?). Also, if you guys remember in The Reckoning, she had a moment where she hits Gabrielle
out of complete disorientation, which is very PTSD. Also, going back to "evil, old ways" is another form of PTSD as it's almost being possessed
by a flashback.
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Delicious Denial |
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To the question of borderline, no. I know several people with borderline personality disorder and Xena absolutely is
not that. It's never something that you can be for a certain length of time and then get over. And she would've had to have just gotten over it, in
order to be the Xena we saw in the show.
Post-Traumatic? Meh. Also have known several people with that and if she had that, her presentation is very strange. Post-Traumatic usually presents itself as fear, not overwhelming guilt. It often presents as a feeling of helplessness, not a bloody rampage from an extended leadership role. The closest to her suffering Post-Traumatic would be seen from her behavior regarding her own actions; in a way, giving herself Post-Traumatic. And then, it'd be her fear manifesting itself through her guilt, afraid of herself, etc. Like I said, it'd be a very odd presentation and be nothing like I've seen in real life. Bipolar? Nope. Take my word for it, no. Schizophrenic? Not so much, though I would say that maybe she could be said to have some schizophrenic presentations as part of psychosis she entered into during psychotic breaks. Such as the one she seemed to suffer after Gabrielle threw herself in the pit during Sacrifice. Of course, that could have been part of the hallucinogenics she was playing with too. Now, did she seem to suffer psychotic breaks? Oh yes, that's what I'd qualify as Xena's pathology. I think at several points during her life, it appears that she suffered short (and extended) periods of psychotic breaks. Again, I have known many people who have only presented themselves with this, without any other disorder mentioned. This can include people that seem otherwise perfectly stable, mentally-speaking, but under times of extreme stress have lost control over themselves and dealing with reality like they otherwise would. Their perceptions become warped and so does their interaction with the world because of it. This is also more likely to happen to an otherwise stable mind if exposed to drugs. Perhaps some of her more extended lapses into mania were helped along by that. If I remember correctly, she could've been smoking opium during the time she met Lao Ma. Just because it's a downer doesn't mean that it'd keep her happy and lazy. I know many people, including family, who become paranoid and violent with well-known downers. And if she experimented with other drugs during her time with Alti, well that would've just been making her mental instability even worse. Was Xena insane? At more than one point yes. Did she have a chronic mental disorder? No. Despite common misconception, those two things do not always go hand-in-hand. You can have a mental disorder and not be insane and you can be insane and not have it stem from a chronic mental disorder. The study of the human mind and its illnesses would be a lot easier if everything could be linked like that. But in Xena's case, I don't believe they were. At times, Xena was insane but it wasn't her natural state.
Thanks to LK for the keepership and bitext banners!
Last Edited By: Delicious Denial
04/10/09 4:09 PM.
Edited 1 times.
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xenawp7706 |
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Non Xena wasn't insane, she was angry and full of rage and vengeance, but she had remorse, that's why she turned good, and in fact, Callisto never had
remorse for what she did and she carried on doing the same bad things, she was psychotic.
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Original Xenavirgin |
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Indeed Xena was not insane. She was traumatised, but even so, she made her choices and acted on them, both as evil Xena and as reformed Xena. I'm pretty
sure somewhere in the show Xena says something along the lines that each day she has to make the choice to do the right thing. And that was one of the main
differences between her and Callisto, as someone above said, Callisto never accepted responsibility for her deeds. In fact she blamed absolutely everyone else
for how she was but never herself. And Najara, now she was very obviously mentally disturbed.
ANKH! DJED! WAS!
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munnag |
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Wow... great post @Delicious Denial
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meaurel |
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She was a woman perfectly sane for the time she lived in.
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